Fashion Show and Homemade Vereniki

I forgot to write about my last day at the summer camp!  I was in the kitchen cooking when a little boy ran in to show us his new souvenir, a dead bat.  I told him to put it down because it could have a disease or rabies - everyone, in Austin at least, knows to never touch a downed bad.  He assured me it was dead, but I told him it didn't matter.  At least get it out of the kitchen!  I brought him a bowl to put it in, then told him to go wash his hands with soap and water, which he did.  Oh, boys will be boys!

Dead bat... in the kitchen

Boys will also be... girls?  I was really confused at first when I saw one little boy dressed in drag.  Then I saw it was not just him!  I guess I had missed the part where the coordinator said we would be having a cross-dressing fashion show competition.  It was really fun to see the litte boys and girls dressed up in each other's clothing.

So cute!

Putting the moves our other camp coordinator

I love this photo

Frida Kahlo eye browns and Hitler mustache

Group photo - I think some of the dresses started falling off

Later the girls cooked vereniki, Ukrainian dumplings.  I was a little shocked they were using the dirty table outside and a beer bottle as a rolling pin, but it worked! 

So proud!

beer bottle rolling pin

Vereniki

Kitchen

My favorite camp kitty!

Final product - carbs, carbs and some Kompot

The ride home

In Odessa this morning, before embarking on my moving adventure, I finally got a chance to check out this restaurant I have been eyeing since the last time I was in town.  I ordered blini, which are like pancakes.  They were not filled with apricots and honey like I thought I ordered, but rather mushrooms and sour cream... looks like I should listen more carefully and not be so eager to agree with servers when they ask me questions.  Either way they were pretty delicious!

Blini and Expresso with milk

Cats and Dogs

Cute pair

My favorite kitty - long ear whiskers and a strange long and short fur combination

I would love to simply write about the dogs and cats that linger around the summer camp.  Unfortunately, I am writing from a much more frustrated place.  It started raining yesterday and has not stopped raining on and off.  Last night was terrible.  It thundered so loud, I could hear it through my earplugs.  In fact, it was louder than the Russian techno that was coming from somewhere in the distance, or the room down the hall, I could not tell.  I was excited to finally leave tomorrow, to meet my dad at the airport, to start volunteering in the HIV clinic, and more selfishly, be closer to steady internet so I could talk to Nat and just be closer to my own personal world.  Today, I heard talk that our car may not make it to the summer camp to take me home tomorrow because the bridge to Odessa is flooded.  Maybe I misunderstood the full situation, but I understood the general message – our car may not come.  I am now praying, and plan on doing a rain dance before bed to pleas the rain gods.  Please, let the rain stop and the heat wave return.  I don’t want my dad to be stranded at the airport, get ripped off by a greedy taxi driver and wait alone in our dark hostel without me.  What a terrible way to spend the 4^th of July.  Well, y’all won’t read this until I get back to Odessa anyways, so if you are reading this, I made it back to Odessa, and hopefully before my dad’s flight arrived.

Overcast day

The Countryside

Country Road

I love the Ukrainian countryside.  I have been running around the town while I am here at the summer camp and have seen some fantastic sites.  I jogged by a cow, saw chickens scratching, got chased by geese, and even paid my respects at an amazing cemetery.  The cemetery, like most parks, has a WWII memorial prominently displayed.  Just noting the number of memorials you see around the country demonstrates the impact the war had on its people.  I am grateful our country has never been devastated to that point before.

WWII Memorial

Unkempt cemetery

Succulents growing on the grave

My summer camp

The geese that chased me

"I'm a cow"... "Get in the truck" - Dennis Leary

How to diffuse an altercation

The kids played a game with the organization’s psychologist today.  We discussed people in our lives can potentially be a source of conflict, as well as people who can help us get out of conflicts.  It’s fascinating to me how overwhelmingly negative the viewpoint here is on the police.  It’s not just “cool” to hate on the police.  It’s the reality of the country of Ukraine – the police are generally just bad people here.  In all my time here, I have never been told to call the police in case of an emergency.  In fact, most advice I have gotten was to stay completely away from them or they will try to rip you off because you’re a foreigner.

This exercise was good for the children because it got them thinking of how to safely diffuse conflicts and use resources to get out of tricky situations.  It was also entertaining to watch!

Workshop

Ukrainian Cuisine

I helped out in the kitchen today, and I would like to say it went well.  It’s pretty hilarious when people see me peeling potatoes and as me questions in Russian like, “Do you know how to cook?” or “Do you ever cook?”  I guess my inability to peel a potato with a 7-inch blade is a dead give away.  Today, one girl took the time to teach me how to peel potatoes the Ukrainian way.  I mean, I guess the rest of the world might peel potatoes like Ukrainians do, but I haven’t had the experience of cooking in other countries.  I was always taught to cut away from you, so that if the knife slips, you don’t cut off a finger.  This, however, is not the Ukrainian way.  I was terrified, not that I could cut my finger, but that I would embarrass myself in front of a bunch of 15 year old girls who already know more about preparing meals that I ever will.  How can I explain to them, that I usually cook for one or two?  If I buy potatoes, I buy two single potatoes, not two huge bags of them.  I peeled more potatoes today in one sitting than I ever have in my entire life – mind trip, right?  Well, it was a learning experience nonetheless. 

We do most of our cooking outside, since that is where the running water is, and the little kitchen inside is always so hot.  We do so much with so little, but we don’t seem to mind at all.   

Hot water station

A BBQ

  

We also sat around a tube of apricots that the boys gathered from a local tree.  I gutted them of their seed, and threw them into another bucket.  We later made Kompot with them.  This is a Ukrainian drink that is very similar to sangria, except its hot, and it doesn’t have wine…. It’s also not juice.  Do we have anything like that in the states?  I am pretty sure you just through fruit and sugar into boiling water and call it a day.  It’s delicious, but when it’s over 100 degrees out it’s not the most refreshing beverages.

Preparing fruit for Kompot

The Dog Says…

Well, in the states dogs say, “Bow wow wow.”  In Mexico, dogs say, “Guau guau guau!”  Here they say, “Gaff gaff gaff!”

It’s funny how each language has a different way of making animal sounds.

Misha the puppy

I later found out that Misha has fleas, like most animals I have met in Ukraine.  Sad times.  I miss  holding my kitty, Toothless!  Nat has been diligently sending my photos of her to keep me happy.

What a good study buddy!

Можно телефон? : Can I use your phone?

This was the most popular question I was asked over the course of a week.  The kids loved my phone because it had games on it.  They all gathered around and watched each other play and asked for it so much I had to start leaving it in my room.  I hated to say no, but the coordinator wanted them to play amongst themselves and not be consumed with technology.  Giving up my phone is hard, because I make notes to myself, check the time and most importantly, look up words I don’t know.  I managed, however, by asking for help when I didn’t understand and learned new words on the fly.

The kids with my iPhone

Instead of playing with my phone, let's play Twister!

Or I can push you around on this... thing

The kids also loved taking photos of each other with my camera. This was great because they weren’t embarrassed to take photos of each other for me.  I got some really cute ones of myself with the kids when they borrowed my camera.  Here are some of the highlights.

Chilling out

Erika and Peter, from Sweden

I couldn't shake them!  They were always all over me.  But I loved it.

These are just some other random shots I took around the grounds.  During the day, the kids just play amongst themselves and run amuck.  It's really cute to watch them play.

Just one second earlier, that kid was hanging just by his hands

Busy playground

My personal caddie.  She loved carrying my purse

An unexpected stay at the beach

I was recruited to go to our summer camp and was not sure what to expect.  I was told to bring a swimsuit, shorts and sunscreen – but for some reason I didn’t really realize I would be staying in a Soviet era sanitarium on a beach, somewhere in Ukraine.  I have very limited internet here, so I am not even sure where I actually am.  All I know is it is beautiful.  This definitely feels more like a vacation than volunteer work.  The children are all very sweet, though sometimes I wish they didn’t talk so fast!  They are really patient with me though, so I appreciate them even trying to converse with me.

The grounds

The grounds entrance from the beach

Today we went to the beach, which is literally across the street.  The sand, little swimming shrimp and jellyfish fascinated me.  When we first arrived to the beach, the children instantly ran up to the jellyfish and started picking them up.  I was alarmed by their actions, and told them that they are dangerous, but they just looked at me like I was crazy.  They told me they weren’t dangerous at all, as they held them up for me to see up close.  Maybe they were too small to be problematic.  Then we jumped into the water and splashed around.  One six-year old little girl immediately became my friend and her smile and laughter nearly brought tears to my eyes.  This is a very special vacation for all these children who the rest of the year living in poverty, children’s homes throughout Odessa, or worse.

Huge jellyfish!

My new best friend holding a jellyfish

Catching shrimp in the rocks

 I love being tan, yes, but there comes a point where enough is enough.  With my wedding around the corner, skin cancer on the rise, and just being too tan, I decided I would start trying to limit my exposure to the sun.  This proved very difficult because we go to the beach at least once a day, if not twice a day!  I think I went to the beach more this week than I have in a year, which is huge since for the summer, I lived in Orange County.  The kids would see me applying sunscreen and ask me what it was.  I would tell them it is sunscreen and they would look at me confused and ask why I would  want to put it on.  One Ukrainian woman stopped me on the stairs and asked me if I use sunscreen, so I showed her my little bottle I carry in my purse.  She said I had a beautiful color, and told me I was a very beautiful girl.  This was a huge surprise, since I was certain Ukrainians preferred fair skinned people, like their Russian counterparts.  I suppose when you have a fantastic beach on your border, unlike Russia, you value tanned skin as being a sign of leisure and vacationing!

The kids loved my dress, and were confused by my desire to stay out of the sun

We are having Ukrainian borsht for lunch today.  I will be helping in the kitchen, so I will take note of exactly how it is done. My attempts at home have been good, yet not authentic.  Well, time to hit those communal showers (which by the way only produce frigid water).   Don’t worry, I lock the door and make sure I am the only one in there! 

Update:

I later found out that if I use the shower to the left, it has hot water.  Sure it’s not a steady stream, and it gets super hot or cold for no reason, but it works great!

I also discovered that those shrimp people were catching were for eating.  I can’t imagine catching something by hand in a bottle, cooking it then eating it.  I am thinking about the time my sisters and I caught a bunch of crawfish in a local park in the river by our house.  They were alive, yet filled with worms… yuck…

While one of our girls cooked the borsht, I paid diligent attention and wrote down the recipe.  Goodness, it was delicious!!  I cannot wait to cook it when I get back.  It’s way better than anything I made while in the US.  Yummm!

Ukrainian Borsht